Sky Mountain Trees Stars: A Collection of Short Poetry

In Sky Mountain Trees Stars, Shoemaker’s poetry explores Japanese poetic forms, from haiku and senryū to tanka. As each technique evolves, the language remains imagistic, playful, and terse. The poems offer pointed observations of human behavior and thoughtful contemplation of place, nature, and her inhabitants. There is attention to the aurality and movement of water, inspired by Hokusai’s painting and Debussy’s La Mer. He deftly uses abbreviated language, images, metaphors, and varied line lengths to create poems that are simple, precise, and often poignant. I sense this book would also appeal to teachers of poetic forms. —Laura Tohe, Ph.D., Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and Arizona State University Professor Emeriti Not only does Shoemaker fill his lines with skeins of geese, rugosa roses, red-tailed hawks, and turquoise sardine clouds, but with a funky contemporary everydayness: lime Slurpees and pizza, Yuki’s whiskers and guide dogs and steel carports, life-sized doll houses and lunar landers.